Christmas 2020, Such As It Is

2020, y'all.  Whew.  What can we say that hasn't already been made into a meme by someone else?  2020 has been "interesting" for everyone.  It's certainly been a roller coaster ride for us.  Let's get the worst out of the way:  in the first 2 months of 2020 we said goodbye to our beloved Rowdy 

then my most-loved blue-eyed Boo

and finally our best elf ever, Cheek

It wasn't the best time for the Beagle family.  

2020 didn't get much better for a while, but we did somehow manage to buy a house and quit our jobs and move to Oregon.  There were a lot of ups and downs but we are very happy here.   We now have a beautiful money pit historical house to restore and we are loving the rain and cold weather, yay!  The inside of the house is torn up but we did work some Christmas magic on the outside that makes us very happy: 

Still, we thought this Christmas email would be a bit sparse this year, featuring only our remaining two heroes, Jackson and Crash.  We enlisted them to do their best.  Crash's best was pretty lackluster this year.  He wore the sweater....

and he wore the hat....

but it wasn't his best work, for sure.  

Jackson has always been great at channeling murderous anger tempered with angelic cuteness, and this year was no exception.  I was so excited about the walking Christmas tree!

But I couldn't get it to walk.  It did this instead: 

So we moved on to the most exciting new costume this year, the Abominable Snowman Bearing Gift costume.  Yeah, just the title alone hints at the joy this costume brings, right?  JOY, I say. 

Hey Jack:  Are you feeling the joy?  

You're not?  Okay, let's add the hat....

Adding the hat with googly-eyes was the final straw for Jack.  I don't think any of you blame him, do you?  

And then there was this.  Just this.

And until a few days ago, that would have been the end of the email, and it would have been fine.  Just fine.  Probably better than most of you expected for 2020.  But then, last weekend, THIS happened!

Introducing Luca!  He is almost 6 months old, trapped feral from a colony in Salem, Oregon.  Even though he's only been here a week, he took right to the Christmas tradition with a definite kitten twist.  We may not have managed to get more than a hat to stay on him, but we sure had fun trying!   

We could have stopped there, but then we just had to try a few more.  Cuteness alert!

The line between "costume" and "toy" has obviously blurred quite a bit by now...  

I was going to finish by saying something about lessons in life but everything sounded like a bad line from a Hallmark Christmas movie so I'll shut up now.  We'll finish with a glamour pose and wish for a healthy and prosperous 2021!  We really miss our California friends but we welcome the new faces in our lives so much.  Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Christmas 2019 - Yes, We're Really Doing This Again....

Some years, the pets are just a little more willing to shine than other years....  This year our shine (and my focus) are just a bit wonky but one must soldier on, so here we go!

We began with a couple new costumes that showed such promise, but turned out to be designed for pets with anatomy that we're pretty sure doesn't exist in the real world.  Who decided that the bow tie would be behind the cat's head instead of under his chin?  Cheek tried really hard to showcase this, but it just wasn't right.

But he certainly shines in yet another Santa suit, doesn't he?  

Even the cheapie Santa t-shirt looks okay on Cheek.

This snowman suit was our biggest disappointment.  Between the carrot nose that was more unicorn-esque and the way the costume just wouldn't center properly, both Cheek and Boo gave it a good try but the effect was a bit lacking.  

Dan reminded me that we had another, more anatomically-correct snowman costume so we put that on Boo.  Better, but still a bit off.  

Once again, Santa to the rescue.  We put Boo into a Santa suit and he was starting to feel the magic... until Jack decided to get involved.  

He knocked Boo's hat off and things went south quickly so we had to separate our models for a time-out.  

Boo had earned a break so we decided Jack should have some fun too.  I was so excited for this elf costume!  Jack was significantly less excited.  

I am pretty happy with this next one - I think it really gives that creepy "I'm a holiday elf who might kill you in your sleep" vibe.

After that, he was done.  Fluffy britches exiting, stage left.

We let him cool off, then eased him into the fleecy jammies with the gift-wrapped butt.  Staged on a blanket with a giant ornament - it's a Hallmark card, right?  Seriously, how cute is he?

   

Once he tired of that and left, we were able to show you his adorable gift-wrapped butt:

Then it was time to get the dogs involved.  Rowdy is really showing (and feeling) his age, so we plopped a couple token props on him and he grimaced at the camera as only an old, long-suffering veteran of this annual tradition can do.    

And then we simply tried to put the same light strand and a Naughty/Nice beanie hat on Crash.  And chaos ensued, as it always does with Crash...  But after he managed to lose the necklace of lights, ultimately a combination of treats and Dan's hand holding up the hat allowed us one shot of the forever Naughty dog.

Our parting image may haunt you, but we think it sums up the holidays this year:  a fat cat living on borrowed time, wearing an elf costume, contemplating his shadow as he tries to escape the camera's unblinking eye.  I'm pretty sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere...  or maybe I just need to go to sleep.

Happy holidays from Dan and Robyn and all our four-legged stars!  

Christmas 2018: As goes the world, so go our pets....

2018 has seemed a bit fraught, and our pets echoed that as the theme for this year's holiday photos.  We broke tradition and started with the dogs this year, and further changed things up by letting them show our Jewish heritage.  

Rowdy, as always, was a trooper.  Crash, as always, was not.  Between stealing Rowdy's hat and trying to chew up his own, he kept us on our toes.  

 

   
We tried again this year to involve Miss Friendly Cat in the festivities, and again she did not want to play.  Sufficiently warned by last year, she tried to run the second she saw the Santa hat.  Dan managed to restrain her long enough to get one picture with Santa and then she escaped. 

That over, we retreated into the house to photograph the cats.  Cheek cooperated as usual, which means he collapsed into a heap and rolled over every time I pointed the camera at him.  We even tried the most objectionable costume and he handled it well from a prone position.  

But he really is best at the headshot that says "Please get this off me" with such dignity.

Jackson has historically been cooperative but this year he was angry.  Angry at the hats, angry at the outfits, angry at the lights, angry at the trees...  Just overall cranky.  

 
 

Boo tried to reason with him, to no avail.  

 But apparently the elf hat-beard combo was the biggest insult.  I personally think the flower was what did it.  We had to stop after these photos were taken, for obvious reasons.  

So on to the true star of every year's photos, our Boo.  In his calm, supermodel way, he showed EVERYONE how it's done.  Take it away, Boo!

 

 In addition to being such a great model, Boo is also very savvy about current events.  He wanted to weigh in on the false controversy weighing down social media in his own subtle way.  

We have a few close friends who are missing loved ones this holiday.  We hope this made you smile through your tears...  

(Look closely, this is Friendly Cat and both the dogs sleeping together in the dog house)

Merry Christmas from Dan and Robyn and all our pets!!